Opinion leadership and opinion seeking are central constructs in academic studies of new product innovations. Fashion opinion leaders as those individuals who accelerate the fashion maturity process by legitimising a fashionable trend and influence other consumers to adopt the new innovative style as a replacement for the current accepted one. Consumers who accept information and adopt new style innovations are called opinion seekers and are important to the diffusion of new fashions because they may act on the information they receive from the opinion leaders. In South Africa, the fashion industry, which consists of a combination of the manufacturing, retail, media and recruitment sectors, generates billions of South African rands per annum, and is the fifth largest employment sector in the country. In fact, the fashion and textile industry in South Africa employed approximately 143 000 people in March of 2005, and contributed 12 percent to total manufacturing employment. Post 1994, it was evident that the fashion industry in South Africa underwent a metamorphosis from a protected market where domestic manufacturers dominated to a market that increasingly faced competition from international sources. During the first decade of democracy, the country joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and opened its creative market to international trade. This saw the industry generate sales of R34 billion, of which 9.4 percent was from clothing sales, and with only 18.7 percent of textiles output being exported. This suggests that the South African retailing industry yields substantial value chain power. There appears to be few published research studies focusing on fashion opinion leadership and opinion seeking amongst the black Generation Y students in South Africa. Owing to the importance of the fashion industry sector, together with the ethnic and cultural diversity of Abstract South Africa, the size of the black Generation Y cohort, and the higher social standing and future earning potential of those with a tertiary qualification, it is important to explore black Generation Y students’ fashion opinion leadership/seeking and fashion involvement. In South Africa, the Generation Y cohort is the first generation to grow up in an era of freedom and constantly changing technology – two forces that serve to broaden the divergence between this fascinating generation and previous generations. In 2013, the Generation Y individuals accounted for an estimated 38 percent of the South African population, and members of the black Generation Y accounted for 83 percent of the country’s Generation Y cohort. The primary objective of this study was to investigate fashion clothing involvement, fashion purchase decision involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking behaviour amongst South African black Generation Y students. The target population for this study were male and female black undergraduate and postgraduate students, aged between 18 and 24, and enrolled at South African registered public higher education institutions (HEIs). The sampling frame for this study constituted the 23 South African registered public HEIs that existed in 2013. This sampling frame was narrowed down using judgement sampling to two HEI campuses in the Gauteng province – one from a traditional university and one from a university of technology. The Gauteng province was selected over other provinces in the country because it contained the highest percentage of the 23 public HEIs. A self-administered questionnaire was designed based on the scales used in previous studies. Lecturers at each of the two campuses selected to form part of the sample were contacted and asked if they would allow the questionnaire to be administered on their students during lectures. Once permission had been gained, the questionnaires were distributed to students during the scheduled lectures. The questionnaire requested respondents to indicate on a six-point Likert scale the extent of their agreement/disagreement with items designed to measure their fashion clothing involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking. In addition, the students were asked to provide certain demographic data. Abstract The findings of this study provide valuable insights into fashion clothing involvement, fashion purchase decision involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking behaviour amongst black Generation Y students in South Africa. Findings from this study show that there is a significant relationship between fashion product involvement, fashion purchase involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking amongst black Generation Y students, and that females have a significantly higher level of fashion product involvement compared to males. Insights gained from this study will help fashion marketing better understand this cohort’s involvement in fashion, which, in turn, should help them tailor their marketing efforts in such a way as to appeal to this segment in an improved manner. / MCom (Marketing Management), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

Opinion leadership and opinion seeking are central constructs in academic studies of new product innovations. Fashion opinion leaders as those individuals who accelerate the fashion maturity process by legitimising a fashionable trend and influence other consumers to adopt the new innovative style as a replacement for the current accepted one. Consumers who accept information and adopt new style innovations are called opinion seekers and are important to the diffusion of new fashions because they may act on the information they receive from the opinion leaders. In South Africa, the fashion industry, which consists of a combination of the manufacturing, retail, media and recruitment sectors, generates billions of South African rands per annum, and is the fifth largest employment sector in the country. In fact, the fashion and textile industry in South Africa employed approximately 143 000 people in March of 2005, and contributed 12 percent to total manufacturing employment. Post 1994, it was evident that the fashion industry in South Africa underwent a metamorphosis from a protected market where domestic manufacturers dominated to a market that increasingly faced competition from international sources. During the first decade of democracy, the country joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and opened its creative market to international trade. This saw the industry generate sales of R34 billion, of which 9.4 percent was from clothing sales, and with only 18.7 percent of textiles output being exported. This suggests that the South African retailing industry yields substantial value chain power. There appears to be few published research studies focusing on fashion opinion leadership and opinion seeking amongst the black Generation Y students in South Africa. Owing to the importance of the fashion industry sector, together with the ethnic and cultural diversity of Abstract South Africa, the size of the black Generation Y cohort, and the higher social standing and future earning potential of those with a tertiary qualification, it is important to explore black Generation Y students’ fashion opinion leadership/seeking and fashion involvement. In South Africa, the Generation Y cohort is the first generation to grow up in an era of freedom and constantly changing technology – two forces that serve to broaden the divergence between this fascinating generation and previous generations. In 2013, the Generation Y individuals accounted for an estimated 38 percent of the South African population, and members of the black Generation Y accounted for 83 percent of the country’s Generation Y cohort. The primary objective of this study was to investigate fashion clothing involvement, fashion purchase decision involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking behaviour amongst South African black Generation Y students. The target population for this study were male and female black undergraduate and postgraduate students, aged between 18 and 24, and enrolled at South African registered public higher education institutions (HEIs). The sampling frame for this study constituted the 23 South African registered public HEIs that existed in 2013. This sampling frame was narrowed down using judgement sampling to two HEI campuses in the Gauteng province – one from a traditional university and one from a university of technology. The Gauteng province was selected over other provinces in the country because it contained the highest percentage of the 23 public HEIs. A self-administered questionnaire was designed based on the scales used in previous studies. Lecturers at each of the two campuses selected to form part of the sample were contacted and asked if they would allow the questionnaire to be administered on their students during lectures. Once permission had been gained, the questionnaires were distributed to students during the scheduled lectures. The questionnaire requested respondents to indicate on a six-point Likert scale the extent of their agreement/disagreement with items designed to measure their fashion clothing involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking. In addition, the students were asked to provide certain demographic data. Abstract The findings of this study provide valuable insights into fashion clothing involvement, fashion purchase decision involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking behaviour amongst black Generation Y students in South Africa. Findings from this study show that there is a significant relationship between fashion product involvement, fashion purchase involvement, fashion opinion leadership and fashion opinion seeking amongst black Generation Y students, and that females have a significantly higher level of fashion product involvement compared to males. Insights gained from this study will help fashion marketing better understand this cohort’s involvement in fashion, which, in turn, should help them tailor their marketing efforts in such a way as to appeal to this segment in an improved manner. / MCom (Marketing Management), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

This cross-cultural study used the "Attitudes Toward Rape Victims Survey" (ARVS), designed by Ward (1984), to examine the attitudes of college students in New Zealand and the United States. The instrument (ARVS) is the first of its kind to test for victim blame, and the first to be limited to the assessment of attitudes toward the rape victim specifically. Subjects were 205 students from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, and 508 students from the University of Arizona, Tucson. The survey responses were analyzed to determine cultural differences in attitudes, according to gender and age. Findings would suggest that the United States students were more sympathetic toward the rape victim, less likely to believe traditional rape myths, and more ready to assign male responsibility for the assault than were New Zealand students. New Zealand women appeared less aware of the implications of sexual assault than both United States men and women, and New Zealand men. New Zealand men demonstrated greater awareness than United States men. Older students in both countries tended to be more conservative in their responses than were the younger students. Although there was a significant cultural difference according to age and gender, scores were consistently low for each sample, indicating a general acceptance of traditional rape myths and a continuing tendency to assign to women the responsibility for sexual assault. Several conclusions were drawn from the data analysis. There is a significant cultural difference in attitudes toward the female victim of rape, between New Zealand and United States college students, according to age and gender. However, both cultures retain a strong belief in traditional rape myths. Responses to the ARVS seem to support the views of current theorists: that attitudes toward rape and incidence of rape are culturally predisposed by factors such as domination and aggression in men, passivity and submission in women, fear of the "feminine," and stereotypic sex roles. It is recommended that more research be undertaken on cross-cultural attitudes toward rape victims.

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the perceptions of the University of Arizona College of Agriculture graduate students on the importance of Extension functions for rural development. In this study graduate students were grouped into: (1) American and international graduate students; and (2) graduate students with and without previous professional work experience. A questionnaire was mailed to 200 graduate students for the assessment of the importance of 34 Extension functions for rural development. The total response rate was 58%. To analyze the responses two statistical tests were used: the Student's t-test and the Spearman's rank order correlation (rs). It was found that the American and international graduate students perceived a majority of the Extension functions alike, but the international students gave them greater importance. Overall, these students ranked the functions similarly. The graduate students with previous professional work experience gave greater importance to the Extension functions than those without such experience, but their rankings were similar.

<p>People's attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS remain a major community challenge. There is a need to generate a climate of understanding, compassion and dignity in which people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) will be able to voluntarily disclose their status and receive the support and respect all people deserve. However, many people expereince discrimination because they have HIV/AIDS. In a certain area in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, a young woman was killed after disclosing the HIV status after being raped by five men. While many previous studies have focused on the external stigma in the general population, there is a dearth of studies on stigma among PLWHA themselves and hence the aim of the present study was to investigate stigma attached to HIV/AIDS from the perspective of PLWHA.</p>

This Q study revealed Fort Wayne, Indiana donors' typical attitudes and perceptions toward philanthropy. Participants completed a 55-statement Q sort about 1) perceptions of nonprofit organizations, 2) various fundraising methods, and 3) types of organizations donors prefer funding.The researcher then entered the data into the PQMethod software and determined three factors of donors: Skeptical Givers, Generous Givers, and Untapped Givers.The Skeptical Givers did not trust nonprofit organizations and only donated a limited portion of their money to charities. Skeptical Givers also felt it was more important for them to save their money and support their family than it was for them to donate money to people in need.The Generous Givers held church as one of their top priorities. They were also taught that it was their social responsibility to help those in need. Therefore, the Generous Givers donated their time and over 11 percent of their annual income to nonprofit organizations.The Untapped Givers were business-minded individuals who were also committed to their communities and nonprofit organizations. They trusted nonprofits and considered helping the less fortunate to be a high priority. Although the Untapped Givers gave money to nonprofit organizations, they preferred to donate their time through volunteering and serving on boards of directors. The Untapped Givers were committed to giving financially to charities; however, they only gave a limited portion of their savings to charities.These three factors illustrated that nonprofit development officers should recognize that different strategies might be employed to entice separate segments of donors to give money. / Department of Journalism

The title of this thesis is 'British Perceptions of the Ottoman Empire (1876-1908). The thesis explores the 'cultural dimension1 of relations between the Ottoman Empire and Britain in this period, involving an examination of ideas about and representations of Ottoman society and its peoples. The overall aim is to stress the importance of these representations in in influencing and affecting relations between Britain and the Ottoman Empire. Nineteenth-century writings about the Ottoman Empire produce strong images of Ottoman society and steroetypes of the Turkish and Christian populations. These images are reconstructed and their significance examined. The approach is contextual and perceptions are analysed in the historical, material and cultural framework of late Victorian Britain. Descriptions of Ottoman society are treated as representations of that complex reality, with varying degrees of accuracy and inaccuracy, reflecting or distorting conditions in the Empire. In addition the relationship between older ideas and ideas developing at a new historical conjuncture of late nineteenth-century imperialism are considered important factors in determining the overall image of the Ottoman Empire in the late Victorian mind. In these ways the conclusion stresses the importance of, and the relationship between ideas about the Ottoman Empire, and the concrete factors of inter-state relations of which they are part. As such the subject contributes to an understanding of the multi-dimensional nature of nineteenth-century relations between a weak and strong state in the International system, and the degree to which culture and ideas are informed by these relationships of power. The study contributes to a greater understanding of the Eastern question and sheds light on many of the ideas that have come to influence modern historiography about the Ottoman past and the appreciation of Ottoman and European diplomatic history.

Social media have become more and more present in the daily life. At the same time, online communities were created about all kinds of topics and the number of opinion leaders increased. With time, those leaders attract followers, starting from nothing to millions of them. Through this thesis, I studied the evolution of the relationship between followers and opinion leaders on social media. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of followers-opinion leaders relationship and simultaneously fill gaps within the leadership field.In order to study this relationship, several methods of data gathering has been used. Both sides has been interviewed, the followers via qualitative questionnaires and face-to-face interviews and the opinion leader only via qualitative questionnaire. Additional data has been collected on the social media platforms used by the interviewed opinion leaders.To conclude my thesis, I described the evolution with the garden metaphor. It highlighted the different phases which opinion leaders and followers are going through.

Prof. LWF Grundlingh